Japan
Japan is a Human country situated on an island off the eastern coast of Asia on Earth. It is one of Earth's nine most influential countries, with a direct impact in the Global Alliance for Space Administration. Japan's long-renowned technological expertise, particularly with electronics and computing, has given it the leading role of the Engineering Department sector of the Human Domain's starships. Japan was a major participant of the Colonial Crisis War, and the resulting Treaty of Tokyo dictates interstellar politics to this very day. History Japan's history is long and rich with infighting and isolation from the outside world. Many attempts to invade the island of Japan were catastrophic failures, blamed on divine favor. Nonetheless, Japan's greatest threat was not from other Asian peoples, but from Europeans, who had strong influence in the Far East during the Age of Exploration. The first of these came from Portugal. Portuguese explorers introduced gunpowder and, thus, early Firearms to Japan, among many other things. Japan's many feuding clans and families used firearms liberally, and this brought great controversy as to the nature of guns among the ruling warrior-elite class of samurai. Guns were banned, and contact with Europeans was also strictly controlled until it was pretty much non-existent. Despite the best efforts of Europeans who were eager to trade with the Japanese, Japan wanted nothing to do with them. This changed in the late nineteenth century when American modern steam-powered warships arrived and, more or less, demanded the right to trade. Japanese leaders were caught off guard and were able to see just how far behind they had fallen. Eager to catch up, Japan quickly underwent the Meiji Reformation. Meiji's policies rapidly united and industrialized Japan, until Japan became the first, and for a long time, the only, non-Western nation to successfully negotiate the transition between an agrarian feudal society and an industrial one. Japan then carved out an empire for itself in many long wars with its neighbors and with Europeans. This empire was extinguished almost as quickly as it began, and Japan formed a federal republic with a constitution under the guidance of its American occupiers. Demographic Decline Japan's densely urban population in tandem with its extremely high development index and quality of life made Japan the first country to experience the phenomenon of demographic decline as countries develop further. Although this trend would soon enough show up in Western developed countries, as well as globally some time later, Japan was the first to deal with this significant problem. Their imperial heyday now but a memory, Japan found it needed to gear up to be able to provide for its increasingly aging population, whilst keeping enough of a new influx of people in order to maintain an economic system. However, as interest in starting families was low, as is a common symptom of this declination, Japan instituted Earth's very first reproductive control policies, mandating that while the state can handle the raising and education of children, its citizens were obligated to procreate. For women it was compulsory (though compensated through various means) and for men it was by choice. While pairings were often random and brief, some found enough chemistry to stay longer than was normally expected. As the demographic decline phenomenon rapidly became a global epidemic, Japan's policies became the world's model response to the problem. Colonial Crisis War When war came to Japan, its first major war in centuries, the Japanese faced a unique problem. Japan had long neglected its military, in a noble effort to never make the same dreadful mistake again. Empire had brought Japan only suffering and strife - did Japan really want to go through all that again? Japan's mostly defensive and consolidated war effort nonetheless made an impact. With stalemate in Asia and, eventually, the rest of the world, Japan was chosen as the optimal place to hold negotiations. There, the Treaty of Tokyo was signed by the nine major participants of the war, which included Japan. The Treaty dictated: #The formation of the Human Domain, governed by a federation of Earth nations. #Any attack on any Human country or colony was an attack on all of mankind. #Put in place rules for the governance of the Human Domain and each country's role within it. And so, Japan's lasting testament to mankind's interstellar experiment is its leadership of the Engineering Department and the high-tech manufacturing industry which only Japan is capable of fully utilizing. Japan spent much less money and resources on the war (it being a defensive effort) than other nations, and so its Engineering Department's first order of business was to help other countries recover. This not only trained the ED's technicians and engineers but also helped to soften the sentiments of distrust and rivalry left over from years of global conflict.